Theosophy and the Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875 at a time when the West was just becoming seriously aware of the existence of religions and people elsewhere. Intelligent people could no longer classify Islam as devilish for instance, or Hinduism as barbaric. But what then? The serious study of religion was started at universities - the first professor of comparative religion got his post in 1875.